In this episode of the Leaderboard Podcast, Zach and Henry are joined by the Executive Director of Anesis Therapy, Myra McNair, to discuss her journey, what it means to be a systems therapist, how Anesis Therapy has helped people navigate mental health and wellness and shares how she was able to build an inclusive culture within her organization.

"When a client sits in my room, it's just not them, right? It's all their experience. It's their family system that's in the room. It's their community that's in the room. It's laws and the legal system that's in the room like all of these things are in the room. Even if I'm just dealing with one individual.⁠ And so when I say I'm a systems therapist, that's what I mean is that I'm looking at this person, understanding all these systems that are coming along with them."⁠
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- Myra McNair, Owner and Founder of Anesis Therapy⁠


Myra McNair sees potential and possibility wherever she looks. As founder and owner, Myra is the visionary behind Anesis Therapy. With a desire to bring more culturally sensitive mental health services to Dane County, she started the clinic in 2016 as the only therapist and has collaboratively transformed it into a practice of over 40 staff members.

Myra’s vision is not only reserved for her business–it is central to what drives her success as a therapist. When Myra meets clients, she doesn’t see deficits or weakness or pathology; along with their pain, she sees their strengths, their inherent wisdom– both generational and individual–and their potential.

This way of envisioning her clients is rooted, curiously, in honoring the past. Myra holds dearly the West African Adinkra symbol of Sankofa, the bird with one foot planted firmly in the present, one foot stepping forward, and whose neck is looking back to the past. Sankofa, a Twi word which translates to “go back and get it,” teaches us that to move forward with a strong future, we must honor the lessons of the past–taking what is good and bringing it into the present moment. As a therapist Myra works with her clients to better understand their past. This then allows them to shape their present, and to pass the seeds of understanding and healing on to the next generation.

Building and training the next generation of mental health workers is another one of Myra’s passions. Along with providing a robust clinical internship program at Anesis, Myra is an Adjunct Professor for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at her alma mater, Edgewood College, and is a consultant and mentor in the UW Infant Mental Health Program from which she also graduated.

Myra is the community coordinator of the Raising Safe Families Together program, where she trains community workers and agencies in the Adults and Children Together (ACT) curriculum.

Myra utilizes a variety of therapy modalities to meet her clients’ needs. While her clinical outlook is largely rooted in psychoanalytic and narrative therapies, Myra also utilizes Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Hypnotherapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and Brainspotting.



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